Newbie with double - should I have gone triple?

wandsworth

I agree with those who say just keep plugging at it. There are hills on my commute that I used to have to shift onto the small ring at the front to get up that I can now do on the big cog. Sur la plaque, baby!

will3

I say keep with it. I ride a variety of chainsets - compact, tripple and 53t monsters.
Personally I find that a 50t ring on the front is usually OK, but the jump to a 34 inner ring is a bit too big.
Recently my comact set died completely (stoopid HTii bearing seized and wore a groove in the axle) and I found this to replace it
a 50-39. It's a really good compromise! I don't have much in the way of hills to climb being resident on the newmarket ridge, but now I do occasionally use the small ring on the compact.

Not sure that helps the OP but it's a handy thing to know.
FWIW, one bike I have has a 53-39 and 11-23 setup. When I first built/rode it I thought it was crazily high geared. A few years later it seems fine, so stick with it.

markhewitt1978

Ed-tron wrote:

So in short, does compact gearing stunt the development of strength/ power as you don't need to turn as big a gear on the hills?

Recently I've been going out for hour long rides in the morning so I can pretty much go flat out, and I've been experimenting with "can I get up this one in the big ring". And I surprise myself just how much is actually manageable, when previously I would have kicked down to a really low gear, the discipline of using the big ring only does help. It might be that you can extend that to not having the lower gears at all.

So in answer to your question, maybe!

keef66

will3 wrote:

I say keep with it. I ride a variety of chainsets - compact, tripple and 53t monsters.
Personally I find that a 50t ring on the front is usually OK, but the jump to a 34 inner ring is a bit too big.
Recently my comact set died completely (stoopid HTii bearing seized and wore a groove in the axle) and I found this to replace it
a 50-39. It's a really good compromise! I don't have much in the way of hills to climb being resident on the newmarket ridge, but now I do occasionally use the small ring on the compact.

Not sure that helps the OP but it's a handy thing to know.
FWIW, one bike I have has a 53-39 and 11-23 setup. When I first built/rode it I thought it was crazily high geared. A few years later it seems fine, so stick with it.

OT, but where is this Newmarket ridge of which you speak? I'm wondering if I live on it too...

zedzed

So ... lets assume I want to change something to make hills easier right now (I'm on the standard double setup that an Allez 2009 has, and it's 8 speed).

I have 2 main options - I think!?

1. Swap rear cassette for (an 8 speed) 11-32 or similar?
What would people recommend (make/model/ratio). I'm guessing I might be able to "DIY" this too rather than take it to a LBS - although I might do that anyway and get the bike serviced while I'm there!

2. Change the whole setup over to be "compact"?
I think this involves changing over the chainset (as well as cassette), and I either need to stick with an 8 speed chainset or I'll end up having to change my shifters too?? Possibly a LBS job if I do that.

It sounds like 1. is the better/cheaper option ... but am I missing something here? Is there a downsite to 1 vs. 2?

Thanks in advance - and thanks for all the chat on the thread - I'm learning as I read

markhewitt1978

No sounds reasonable. You'd be able to get even lower gears with a compact, but if the 11-32 gives you the gears you need then it's fine.

sherer

all depends on the type of rider you are. I've not got a lot of power or strength and so I had to go for a triple and even then i went lower with a 28 on the front. It's taken me about 4 years to reach the point where I don't need the triple much and even then I still use it occassionally on a few hills.

As long as you are getting up the hills and enjoying it there is no right or wrong answer to this

jaxf

When I started riding 2 years ago, my husband thought this was a good idea for my first ride - http://app.strava.com/activities/68914089 - so I failed, and I got a mountain bike cassette on my road bike (hangs head in shame).
Now, I really like those gears for Tenerife, and for the one section at 22% near me, but most of the time I plug away at climbs like Col de l'Iseran and Col du Pt St Bernard in the middle gears ....

So, it gets easier, and living in the hills as you do, it'll get easier fast.

cedargreen

OnYourRight wrote:

cedargreen wrote:

While the pros/ cons of a triple aren't really relevant to the OP, I had to respond to this as it's possibly the biggest load of twaddle yet written about triples- and there's quite a lot of that about.

If you truly think you’ve never before encountered such twaddle, you owe it to the cycling community to disabuse Jan Heine of his similar views. Good luck.

[

Interesting article by Jan Heine. He seems to be claiming that Shimano triples don't change very well because of poor design but I haven't experienced this problem with either Ultegra or the horribly neglected Sora on my 'hack' bike. And it's never once occured to me that my chaintrings are the wrong size- thanks for letting me know about this. Pehaps Heine is trying to baffle us with science and imagines that if he bores us half to death with a detailed and long-winded explanation of how the widgets in Shimano triples don't work properly we'll believe him. His main complaint seems to be that Shimano triple chainrings are'nt compatible with 'his' chainrings, which are naturally far superior. Since he seems to be pushing 'his' brand I'm not sure his opinions are entirely objective. But then I'm just an idiot who's been riding around for years with the wrong size chainrings that don't work properly.

will3

keef66 wrote:

will3 wrote:

stuff.

OT, but where is this Newmarket ridge of which you speak? I'm wondering if I live on it too...

Sorry for not replying but better late than never: yes I suspect you do live on the ridge or near it. It's so famous it even has its own wikipedia article (with helpful picture so you know what you're looking for.)

As an aside it does mean that there's a nice ride that takes in the highest points of essex, cambridgeshire and suffolk in one hit.

keef66

will3 wrote:

keef66 wrote:

will3 wrote:

stuff.

OT, but where is this Newmarket ridge of which you speak? I'm wondering if I live on it too...

Sorry for not replying but better late than never: yes I suspect you do live on the ridge or near it. It's so famous it even has its own wikipedia article (with helpful picture so you know what you're looking for.)

As an aside it does mean that there's a nice ride that takes in the highest points of essex, cambridgeshire and suffolk in one hit.

Given the current flooding I'm glad I live on a ridge!

Googling newmarket Ridge I found this ride which looks interesting; I could start and finish from my front door since his route goes up Duchess Drive!
http://velorichard.wordpress.com/2012/0 ... ills-ride/

will3

Looks a good route, takes in most of 'my' stomping ground. Say what you like about the flatness of east angular, but the lanes in the newmarket/haverhill/saffron/royston corridor are brilliant cycling. There's a particularly nice run from great chishill all the way down to wendens ambo, gentle downhill gradient all the way and usually with a following wind.

Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Daz555

Carbonator wrote:

Hi, out of interest, what is your lowest gear combo?

I would question what you said about needing to walk up hills were it not for the triple as I would have thought you could have had as low a gear (ok but without such close ratios) with a compact, and in my experience you just rely on low gears anyway.

My lowest gear combo is 30:30 (50-39-30 and 12-30). And yes I like the low gears - too many years of football have left me with knees a few years older than I am and spinning is better than mashing.

The thing I like best about triples though is not actually the granny gear. It is being able to sit in the middle ring for miles and miles that I like the most and I also like the less dramatic change when you shift rings on the front - so often on my commuter hybrid (which has a compact) I have to double shift front and rear. This is rarely a problem on a triple.

Each to their own of course.

keef66

"being able to sit in the middle ring for miles and miles"

That's what I like about my triple. I've even speculated about following the MTB trend and building a 1 x 10 road bike with a 39t chainring and a 12-27 cassette. That would do me for just about 99% of my riding round here. Wouldn't be as clever in Wales or the Pennines though.

madtam

I have a triple by choice and live in the Pennines so it does get use.
I have not had shifting problems, do sometimes double shift to cover abrupt gradient changes and generally make good use of the available gears.
It's rare I drop into the smallest ring on most rides, except when returning home and I have a short section up a ramp alongside a flight of steps. It would probably be just about possible to power up it in a bigger gear as it's a fairly short section, but it's often slippery and you need to balance the weight carefully. Too much weight on the front and the rear wheel spins but too much weight on the back and you wheelie backwards. There are also a few other hills around that are short but 25-35% steep (and steeper at times) where it just makes sense to have the lower gear.
My only complaint would be that with only a 50 on the front, on some of the downhills it's a bit too easy to spin out when you get above about 45mph. I guess I could work on upping my cadence, but when the drivetrain becomes worn I will be searching for an option to add a 53t (haven't 54t been offered sometimes?) for more speed.
Technically, I can fully crosschain at the moment but would never dream of doing that since it's easy enough to shift. Running a 53t would probably mean I could no longer do this, but who cares. previously I had an mtb that I put a 50t on the front and in fact had (I think) 50/39/28 with and 11-34 on the back. Even with a long cage derailleur there was no way you could cross chain it but it gave an incredible range that all worked fine as long as you were sensible.

Regarding the original question. My son was struggling with his gearing on his compact around this area. I think it's a 50/39 and had an 11-25 on the back. Switching to an 11-30 was a cheap option that took a few minutes to fit and made all the difference to him. The first couple of rides out after the change saw a number of Strava PB's on climbs, so even if only psychological effect it still seemed to work. At 14 years old it seemed like a good idea to save his legs and knees from pushing too big a gear anyway.